TV Mini-Series Episodes
Slowburn Romance: Bridgerton/Sanditon/Bright Star
My favorite costume dramas of last year are back with sophomore seasons, and they're the slowest of slowburns. Will Charlotte get over the loss of Sidney and finally find someone in Sanditon who appreciates her? Will Anthony ...
Historical Romance Badassery
To celebrate Women's History Month, I'm highlighting favorite real and fictional badasses. Warning: I mention the word badass many, many times in this episode. Clearly I love me a bit of badassery. Women worthy of official bi...
Brave Romcomedy
I'm celebrating International Women's Day with a round up of comedy badassery by Ali Wong, Amy Schumer, Jenny Slate, Rose Matafeo, and Iliza Shlesinger. Whether it's a romcom movie, TV show, blog, book, or live special, these writers are funny, raunchy, honest and real when talking about their lived experiences. They're badass inspiration. (CW: lots and lots of profanity, mentions of body image, brief mention of drug use, and lots of juicy sex talk.)
Love & Romance Over 40: Part 2
I'm really starting to feel that cultural and romantic invisibility cloak that covers women of a certain age. Luckily, there are a few aspirational, sometimes inspiring TV shows and movies that feature people over the age of 40 romancing each other and getting it on — even if it seems that you need to have a beautiful face, well-placed wrinkles and a near-perfect body to deserve the same. CW: talk of anti-body positivity and toxic Hollywood and cultural beauty standards.
Mod Classic: Jane Austen
This former literary snob confesses that — at least right now — I prefer watching Austen to reading Austen. I need streamlined, quick banter, a snappy pace. Luckily, there are a ton of adaptations, retellings and inspired by Austen books and films to last quite a while. Vanessa King, author of A Certain Appeal, the Pride and Prejudice-inspired story set at a New York burlesque club, stops by to talk about why she decided to modernize Austen. And listener Mariah joins me to explore the 2005 Prid…
Learning from Romance: Part 3
The lessons keep on coming! In this final episode in my miniseries on what I've learned from romance, I encounter...monster erotica. I'm tardy to the party, so giggle along with me as I explore my "first-won't-be-last" monster fucking romance, and listen to an excerpt from an erotic monster story--full of tentacle sex--by guest author VB Beringer.
Learning from Romance: Part 2
My year of reading romances has modeled so many good things for me, especially stories with the family of choice trope. We're not all lucky enough to be raised in an emotionally healthy family, so reading about how loving, su...
Learning from Romance: Part 1
I've made some surprising discoveries about myself while reading romances this year. The wave of positivity, love, respect and acceptance for all sorts of fictional characters in these stories has encouraged me to love and accept myself, and even discover new aspects of my sexuality.
Royally Romantic
It's the Anglophile edition of the podcast, where I claim to "not be into royalty all that much," and then immediately prove myself wrong. Fake kingdoms in mountainous areas of Europe, fake royalty who always seem to speak with a British accent, commoners lifted from their humdrum, working-class lives as a metaphoric crown is placed on their heads: I might giggle uncontrollably over the contrivances, but I'll watch and read it all.
Romance After Dark
My current fantasy bedroom is full of steam & kink. I'm in the mood, people, so let's read-aloud from some of the hottest, kinkiest romances I've ever read! It's hard to find this level of heat, consent, care AND happy-ever-after on screen, but romance writers have got you covered.
Calling Every Body: the Radical Romance of Shrill/This Way Up/Dietland
These funny, sharp TV shows written by women knock fat- and mental illness shaming on its behind, and tell stories of hard-won self-acceptance instead. It's about embracing our deepest desires and the person we are, not who They say we should be. It's about romancing yourself. CW: mentions of body shaming, anti-fat bias, mental illness, and briefly, abortion, weight loss and suicide ideation.
Dear Darling: the Romance of Letters & Messages
There's nothing more intimate than a letter, card, text or message written for your eyes only. The epistolary novel has been popular for centuries, and romantic stories using this device can feel like the best kind of eavesdropping.
The Romance of Rock
Music romances and seduces listeners, sometimes gently and sometimes with a rough, dirty, driving, relentless hot beat. That kind of romance rocks, and its rockstars are sex on legs.
Sex Positivity: Easy/The Overnight/The Intimacy Experiment
I crave more sex- and age-positivity, a wider range of human sexuality and relationship, in the romantic TV shows and movies that I watch now. Romance novels have always done a great job at representing shame-free sexuality, desire, and fantasy. But the Netflix series Easy and the movie The Overnight also get it right.
The Romance Spectrum: The Kiss Quotient/The Bride Test/Doc Martin
Human beings exist on a spectrum of diversity and differences, and romances that reflect that are touching my heart lately. The widest range of life experiences represented in stories can only be a good thing. Being seen and accepted, not treated as an exception, is inspiring. It's all part of the flow of life.